Overheard...

As you probably already know, Lily Ruth is NOT a good sleeper. Our battles over bedtime are already epic, and she's barely two.

She has had another verbal breakthrough. After spending two short days in the 'big kid room' at Parent's Day Out, my Darling One now insists on full sentences, and is working very hard on the 'F' sound... which is much more innocuous than it sounds.. really...

But these leaps in cognition come with a price. Her tiny system goes into overload, and instead of crashing, she fights sleep with every cell of her exhausted, past-it's-limit body. This week has seen more than it's fair share of screaming during sleep time. We finally had to put a king-size pillow across the bottom of her door to block the (almost 2 full inches) gap. She would lay (lie? Which one is right?) on the floor and gaze under the door for HOURS after we put her to bed crying piteously and reaching her fingers through every time we had to pass.

The pillow stopped most of that until this weekend. Now, she reaches through and moves the pillow so that she can see again :-/ It was awful. Cries of 'Daddy!? Daaaaaad! Daddy, I need help. Help me open the door, Daddy!' and 'Mama!? I need my Mama!' rang down the hall. What's worse? She's obsessed with learning everyone's first names, so now she's using them. 'Rachel? Rachel! I need help, Rachel! I can't sleep... please open the door, Rachel!' Somehow, that's worse. I had managed to harden my heart to 'Mama, Mommy and Maaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhmmmm!', but hearing the name that my mother lovingly gifted to me being pleadingly called from under a door is just plain pitiful.

The only upside occurred today during (what should have been) nap time. She moved the pillow and spent a good 5 minutes calling for the cat. Seriously. 'Biiiing... Bingy... Bing, come HERE... Bing, I need you... Come in here wif Yih-yee-oof...' Ummmm, he's a cat. He has never in his (or her) life come when called unless roasted chicken was involved. He sat on my bookcase and stared out the window. Her cries didn't even cause him to twitch an ear. We found this hilarious. Daddy Don and I hatched giggly, whispered plans to throw him in there in hope that she'd be appeased and fall asleep. No dice. Bing refused to be tossed, and Lily Ruth refused to nap.

Ah well. This too shall pass. Someday she'll sleep. Someday I'll sleep. Maybe someday, Bing will come when called.